Another petrol and diesel price hike .

For the past weeks the Malaysian press and the other news media have been highlighting the shortage of diesel in the country.It was said that the shortage was due to the smuggling of diesel to neighbouring countries such as Thailand and the Philippines. There was a hue and cry over the shortage and many lorries and buses and other public transport vehicles had to be off the road .That incapable Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs pretended to be too concerned by doing spot-checks at some petrol stations .He has been giving statements to the effect that the government has been too much burdened with subsidies on petrol and diesel and that the government would soon find a solution to the problem .(Perhaps the solution was to increase the price of petrol and diesel ?).

Yesterday, ( Wednesday ) evening after the Cabinet meeting the government announced another price hike for petrol -10 sens and diesel -20 sens .The government explained that it had to increase the price in order to reduce the subsidies on petrol and diesel gradually .The last price hike was just a few months ago in .In March 2005 the government announced a price increase on fares of public transport such as taxis, buses and lorries which had caused the prices of essential goods to go up too.

The last price hike had caused the fares for buses , ferries , train and lorries to increase significantly . What would be the effect of todays petrol and diesel price hike ? Definitely another increase on fares and essential goods ? To the ministers and members of parliement this would be alright because the government had just announced a big pay rise for them .Fixed income people especially pensioners like me would be worst hit by the present scenario . We simply could not tighten our belt any more because it is already tightened to the limits .No other choice, we have to change our spending habits, otherwise we would end up with heavy debts .

Malaysians should voice our dissatisfaction with the way the government is administrating the country .As responsible citizens we should not just keep quiet or worst still be agreeable with the governments action .How can each time they want to increase the price of petrol and diesel ,they put the blame on the huge subsidies ? Our country is an oil producing country . Why shouldn't the people enjoy a slightly lower price of petrol and diesel than any other countries ? Why don't the government blame on the subsidies when the price of proton cars is much cheaper overseas than in Malaysia ? Why don't the government blame on subsidies when the price of palm oil , rubber and other exported commodities are much cheaper in this country than those exported ?Further more it was diesel that was experiencing the shortage , why need to increase the price of petrol ? Doesn't this looks like that the shortage was superficial and that it was engineered by the government to justify the price increase of petrol and diesel ???

I am now suggesting that Ministry be just called Ministry of Domestic Trade minus the Consumer Affairs for reason that it is not protecting the consumers interests at all .

Today , most newspapers wrote that the Lorry Transport Owners Association are proposing an increase in fares of about 40% .This ,if approved by the government would certainly lead to another big inflation .